Another Augie and Spuds Adventure: WE ARE NOT AFRAID! 10-5-20
“I wonder where we are off to today, Augie?”
“It’s down the road to another adventure, Spuds!”
“Hi, Guys! How are you all doing?”
“I know they want to go with us, Augie!”
“It’s another meet-the-heavy-equipment day, Spuds!”
“Yeah, first the backhoe and now the skidsteer, Spuds!”
“Oh, check this out, Spuds, SUPER FUN!”
“Hey, Augie, wait for me! Yee Haw!”
“Don’t we all look like another statue, Spuds?!”
“YUP, but it’s time to go, Augie! Whoopee!”
“You take the high road and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll get there before you, Augie!”
“You can’t be King of the Mountain without going HIGH, Spuds!”
“AND, you learn to pick your way CAREFULLY, Spuds!”
“I’d rather be jumping, Augie! It’s MUCH MORE FUN!”
“I can jump, too, Spuds, and HIGHER than you!”
“Each to his own… knock yourself out, Augie!”
“I am a true energy-conserver, Augie!”
“And maybe a bit lazy, eh Spuds! Come on! This one’s easy, Spuds!”
“I was just waiting for you to get out of the way… so I could jump!”
“Yeah! Yeah! Sure you were, Spuds! “I’m not afraid, Augie!”
“Walking in sync is harder than people might think, eh, Spuds?!”
“Yeah… and so is posing for the pictures she wants!”
“It’s easy when you have core strength and flexibility, Spuds! Then you can BOTH get what you want!”
“Sure is smoky out here from the fires, Augie!”
“Yeah, but it’s nice to be out for another adventure!”
“OH, what’s she doing now, Augie?!”
“I think we are supposed to follow, Spuds… IN SYNC!”
“Isn’t SHE being lazy now, Augie?!”
“Not really, Spuds… she’s getting older! So, we need to be cooperative… so we can have more ADVENTURES!”
In Part 1 of this article, you learned how to begin your relationship with your miniature equine in a positive and natural way, and how “getting down” to their eye level so they can make eye contact with you discourages striking, jumping on you and other bad behaviors that are common when working with miniature equines. Be sure you have successfully completed the lessons in Part 1 before moving on to the lessons in Part 2 or training may not yield the desired positive results. Also, if possible, it is best to work minis in groups if they are used to being with other equines, as they perform better when they are with their “friends” and it doesn’t hurt to train their friends in the same way.
in Part 1), but this time you will be in the work station and you will have a guest…the farrier. Before the farrier attempts to pick up the first foot, ask him to sit down beside your mini in front of the shoulder on the left side and offer a handful of oats as a way of introducing himself. Next, while you sit at your mini’s head and offer the oats reward for good behavior, have the farrier begin with the near side (left) front foot and work his way around from front to back, and then from back to front on the other side (right). While the farrier is working, talk calmly and encouragingly to your mini, and as long as he is doing what is asked of him, offer rewards generously. He should yield his feet easily, but if he does not don’t offer the reward until he complies.
Don’t shove your mini when you want him to move over. Rather, give him some oats and use your index finger to tap or poke him on the side of his ribcage. If he doesn’t move over, use your whole hand to give him a slight push, always using a “push and release” movement, which is non-confrontational. You don’t want to keep steadily pushing up against him, because as soon as you give him anything to push against, he will and you could find yourself in a pushing match or, worse, a confrontation with him. As soon as he complies and moves, give him the oats reward and slide your body in next to him to help hold him in position for the farrier as he works with each foot. Don’t be afraid and always stay on the same side as the farrier. If the mini decides to make an abrupt move, he will try to slide around you because equines really don’t like stepping on, or running over, soft, squishy things like our bodies, so if your mini can get out of your way, he will. Even if he was to jump up in the air, he would more than likely jump over or around you, taking the path of least resistance. Trust your mini, stay calm and avoid becoming tense or exhibiting fear and things should go smoothly.
This approach becomes particularly important when negotiating something like a dock or a bridge where you are not only dealing with an obstacle, but an obstacle that makes you substantially taller than you already appear to your mini. This is another instance when you can “get down” on your mini’s eye level the way you did in the pen and at the work station. Remember to do things in small steps. When you walk onto the surface of the dock or bridge or any other large, flat surface, leave enough room for your mini to come up. When you get to the end of the lead rope, take up the slack and then sit down and offer the reward. Then, once your mini has negotiated the obstacle, give him the oats reward and just have another picnic. If a companion equine is accompanying you, be sure to tie the companion animal in front of the obstacle so your mini can always see him. If you tie him behind, your mini will worry and want to go back instead of forward.
When you are ready to step down off the dock or bridge, it would be unsafe to be lower than your mini, so at this point you should stand up, go to the end of the obstacle and ask him to come forward off the raised obstacle, making sure he has plenty of room to come off the obstacle without you having to move. Stand quietly and keep the lead rope taut as you verbally encourage him and invite him to come down off the bridge. As soon as he jumps down, ask for a halt and reward him for jumping down and stopping right in front of you. (He will learn to negotiate the obstacle more slowly with practice.) Once he has finished negotiating the obstacle and halted and is chewing on his reward, you can then proceed to the next obstacle. Having definite, purposeful and timely pauses will help alleviate anxiety and resistance in your mini.
longer he must go without making eye contact with you, the greater the chance of resistance, but eye contact on his level will give him confidence in your judgment and will help to facilitate a real bond between you. If negotiating an obstacle such as a tractor tire or six tires, just extend the lead rope over the tire or tires, sit on that side, keep the rope taut and proceed as you did with the bridge obstacle.
I call this technique “OATS.” (Observe, Approach, Touch and Sigh). It allows your mini time to observe each situation, then approach and touch the obstacle, finally giving a sigh as a signal that he is relaxed and not afraid. Always reward him for his efforts so he can begin to gain confidence and trust in you. By following the OATS technique you are turning your mini’s fear into curiosity, which will serve to keep him calm in future situations.
Miniature horses, donkeys and mules all have one thing in common; everyone else is taller than they are! That makes eye contact with the trainer very difficult if not impossible for them. As the saying goes, the eyes are the window to the soul so it is understandable that they would become anxious if they are unable to look into a person’s eyes to decide whether they are friend or foe. I have five miniature equines: a mini horse named Mirage, a mini mule named Franklin, a mini molly mule named Francis, and two mini donkeys named Augie and Spuds. To help them all succeed and thrive, I’ve structured my training program for them based on the same one I use for all of my other equines, with one important modification. With safety always as my first priority, I work with my minis from a lower position whenever it’s safe to do so. That way, I can make eye contact with them, and I make certain they are always lavishly rewarded with an oats reward for their compliance. The results have been amazing! I’ve received total cooperation from them almost all of the time.
None of my minis were born at my ranch, so I knew that they would each first need to explore their surroundings a little at a time, and would also need ample time to get used to my staff and me. Mirage, the miniature horse, was my first mini. It wasn’t long after I acquired him that I acquired Franklin, the mini mule, who quickly became Mirage’s buddy. Since both Mirage and Franklin had previous training and because minis seem to accept training more willingly when done with a partner, we did all of Mirage’s and Franklin’s groundwork lessons together and, true to form, they learned very quickly because they were allowed to be together.
I think it is critically important that all equines have a space they can call their own—their personal oasis of comfort and privacy—so when I got my mini donkeys, Augie and Spuds, I decided that the first thing they would learn about was their living quarters or, as I like to call it, their “bedroom.”
When your mini is comfortable with you coming into his pen and interacting with him, the next step is to ask him to go into a bigger turnout area, where you should repeat the same simple lessons. Now that your mini can be loose in a larger space, ask him to come to join you for another picnic. After a few times, bring a hairbrush with you (It’s the most efficient brush to use on donkey hair).
A halter doesn’t even come into play until after grooming in the pen is easily achieved and your mini will follow you to and from the pen without the halter. When it is time to introduce the halter, bring it with you into the pen for your picnic. Do the brushing and then show your mini the halter while you sit on the ground. When he sniffs the halter, he should be rewarded. Once he is unafraid of the halter, hold it on both sides of the noseband, feed your mini some oats, and then gently push the noseband of the halter over his nose and then take it off, rewarding him again. At this point you’ve got all kinds of oats in your lap and your mini’s got his head down, eating the oats, so when you put the noseband on again, just reach over his neck, grab the strap of his halter on the other side, bring it behind his ears and fasten it. If done correctly, this should not bother him. Then reward him with more oats, pet him as he complies and say, “Oh, how good is that?!” You can then take the halter off again and end the first lesson there.
Once your mini is used to having his halter put on, let him graze while supervised in a larger pasture area with his halter on while he drags the lead rope behind him. When you want him to walk away from you, simply stand up and let him go off on his own. After a few minutes, approach him again, grab the end of his lead rope and sit down again. You can give a little tug, say his name and ask him to “Come.” He should come easily when you gently tug on his lead rope. This action makes him look at you and think, “Oh, my human is sitting down again, so I’m going to come over and get more oats!” As he comes toward you, take up the slack on his approach. Once he comes to you easily, you can stand up and ask him to come while you’re standing up and reward him for it. And that’s how to teach a mini to follow you.
Breaking things down into little do-able steps seems like a long process in the beginning, but as your mini begins to understand the reasoning behind your approach, his reactions to tasks will become calmer, more automatic and more natural for him. When you allow your mini to learn to follow your lead without the halter in the beginning of each task, learning to follow you on the lead rope will be a lot easier for him, and when you finally move on to more specific tasks in training, he will oblige you much more willingly. In Part 2 of “Getting Down With Minis,” I will cover how to approach the tasks necessary for formal training.
